SEEDS — Early Childhood (Survey of Early Education, Development, and Strengths)

A large-scale study of early childhood development in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, led by the Center for Applied Social and Economic Research (CASER) at NYU Shanghai in collaboration with Zhejiang University and the University of Pennsylvania. Spanning an urban district, a suburb, and a rural county to capture the urban-to-rural development gradient, its stratified probability-proportional-to-size baseline sampled 10,661 children (8,650 in the analytic sample). SEEDS pairs internationally standardized developmental assessments (ECDI2030, ASQ-3, and ASQ:SE-2) with rich modules on family socioeconomic status, parenting, caregiving, health, and the community environment, adds a geospatial layer linking each child to their neighborhood, and carries consent for longitudinal follow-up, with a parenting-intervention randomized controlled trial (RCT) and a national extension (SEEDS China) already underway.

CEPS — Adolescence and Schooling (China Education Panel Survey)

A nationally representative longitudinal study administered by the National Survey Research Center (NSRC) at Renmin University of China, comprising two cohorts: CEPS13, which began in 2013 with roughly 19,500 seventh- and ninth-grade students across 112 schools in 28 county-level units, and CEPS18, which began in 2018 with a younger Grade-4 cohort of some 36,400 students in an expanded frame of 40 county-level units. Across five linked instruments—student, parent, head-teacher, subject-teacher, and administrator questionnaires—CEPS combines standardized, curriculum-free cognitive-ability tests, a Big Five personality inventory, academic transcripts and examination scores, and health measures with detailed data on family, school, and community, linking educational outcomes to their multilevel contexts.

BCSPS — Higher Education and the Transition to Work (Beijing College Students Panel Survey)

A longitudinal study of higher education, elite formation, and social stratification that tracks two undergraduate cohorts—admitted in 2006 and 2008—through college and into the labor market. Using a multi-stage, stratified probability-proportional-to-size design across Beijing’s public universities, its 2009 baseline sampled 5,100 students from 15 institutions and interviewed 4,771 (a 93.6 percent response rate). Five waves fielded between 2009 and 2013 followed respondents through graduation and early careers, gathering data on family background, college life, academic performance, health, values, Communist Party membership, and labor-market entry; a sixth wave in 2024–2025, administered online, re-contacted the panel more than a decade on, extending BCSPS into its members’ mid-thirties.